The deaths today of three journalists from US fire has provoked a strong
reaction from press associations who fear their members may be becoming targets
for trigger-happy soldiers.

Al Jazeera television’s Tariq Ayoub was killed and a cameraman injured
when a US-missile hit their office while they were preparing for a live
broadcast. Shortly afterwards, a US airplane returned to bomb the neighbouring
offices of the Arabic satellite channel, Abu Dhabi.

Later in the day a US tank targeted the high-rise Palestinian Hotel in
downtown Baghdad housing foreign journalists, killing a Reuters cameraman Taras
Protsyuk, and a journalist with the Spanish television Telecinco. Three other
journalists were wounded.

“We don’t target journalists,” military officials said on the defensive
at US Central Command in Doha. They said a tank crew had fired a round at
the Palestine Hotel in which Reuters and many other foreign news associations
are based, after coming under fire from the location. This claim has been
rejected by other journalists located in the same building, including the BBC,
who commented on televised news casts that there was no firing in the area
before the American shells hit them. US officials have so far failed to
acknowledge the attack on Tareq Ayoub, which comes a week after the hotel in
which Al Jazeera's Basra correspondents were staying, came under aerial
bombardment. The bombs did some damage to the Sheraton hotel grounds, but
caused no casualties.Condemnation has come hard and fast.The International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said the attacks may have been war crimes. The
Brussels-based lobby group also accused the United States of singling out
Al-Jazeera for punishment."The bombing of hotels where journalists are
staying and targeting of Arab media are particularly shocking events in a war
which is being fought in the name of democracy," IFJ general secretary
Aidan White said in a statementMichael Massing of the Committee to Protect
Journalists in New York called it a black day for journalism."I’ve been in
this job for 12 years and today is one my worst days....It would seem the
attack was direct." The response from the Arab world has been no less
severe. The Arab Journalists' Union accused the US military of deliberately
targeting reporters."The American invasion forces are deliberately
attacking journalists," the union's secretary general, Salaheddin Hafedh,
said in a statement. "The air strikes and murder of journalists clearly
show that the American and British invasion forces are looking to prevent the
press from carrying out its duties," the statement said. Hafedh charged
that the coalition "has now begun to strike journalists to stop them from
revealing the atrocities committed against civilians." In Amman the head
of the Jordanian Journalists' Union, Tariq Al-Moumin also said he believed the
attacks were designed to send a message. "I guess the attack on
journalists was intended. Americans do not advocate freedom, they are not
democratic."The Moroccan National Press Union (SNPM) accused the US of
trying to take out 'unfriendly' voices."The Americans want journalists'
work to serve their military strategy," said Younes Moujahid, secretary
general of the SNPM, adding that the US troops had earlier today
"knowingly targeted journalists." The Lebanese Information Minister
Ghazi al Aridi was equally direct in his response. "This is how America
understands democracy. The meaning of this concept for the Americans is
silencing people, arresting protestors in front of the White House, and in he
said.Reporters without Borders (RSF,) a worldwide media watch group, condemned
the deaths of three journalists in Baghdad in two separate US attacks, saying
it would demand answers from Washington. The Paris-based group said it would
send a letter later in the day to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
"in protest over what appears to be a deliberate act by the American
army" and demanding explanations. In Washington, the Pentagon blamed the
deaths of the journalists in Baghdad on the Iraqi government, saying it kept
putting civilians at risk. "We don't target journalists. But as we have
seen repeatedly the Iraqi regime has put civilians at risk. Baghdad remains a
dangerous place," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. Reporters without
Borders also lamented the "total silence" from US forces about an
incident in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on March 22, in which veteran and
highly respected international correspondent with ITN, Terry Lloyd, was killed,
apparently by US-British fire.Two other members of his crew are still missing
following that incident. ---Al Jazeera and Agencies